1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a three-dimensional data generation device for generating three-dimensional data that represents the continuous arrangement of elongated components such as pipes, electric cable housing components, air conditioning ducts or the like using a computer, and to a method and a program thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
The arrangement of elongated components such as pipes, electric cable housing components, air conditioning ducts or the like in thermal, nuclear and hydroelectric power plants is addressed in the arrangement plan during plant planning. The arrangement is planned nowadays using three-dimensional arrangement adjustment CAD, thanks to its convenience in terms of data input and management of subsequent downstream expansions.
The arrangement of all components that may come under the plan should be planned ahead using three-dimensional arrangement adjustment CAD. Depending on the circumstances, however the situation at the construction site may take precedence, and arrangement changes become unavoidable. For instance, the arrangement of a component in design has to be modified so as to avoid interference when, for instance, the component crosses a site at which a preceding component has been already buried.
When depending on the circumstances of the construction site it becomes apparent that support components must be mounted, there are modified, within allowable margins, the mounting positions of support components of pipes and electric cable housing components whose route can be modified.
Among elongated components such as pipes, electric cable housing components, air conditioning ducts or the like, those that can be modified at the construction site and that require no previous manufacturing at a factory, are significantly affected by the conditions at the construction site. Mounting of these components can thus be modified at the construction site.
Information relating to effects on component arrangement, for instance the impossibility of mounting a support component, is learned at the construction site. As a result, it becomes necessary to check three-dimensional information component arrangement at the construction site. Ordinarily, the construction site is not an environment where large-scale three-dimensional arrangement adjustment CAD can be used, and hence it would be desirable to be able to check three-dimensional information by means of a simple system.
Isometric drawings that portrait the state of the completed facility are generated as the final drawings used at the construction site. Isometric drawings may also be generated for repair works and the like through, for instance, on-site measuring of already-existing elongated components. That is, isometric drawings may be generated through, for instance, on-site measuring of already-existing elongated components such as pipes, electric cable housing components, air conditioning ducts or the like.
Herein, it is highly effective to convert quickly the information of an isometric drawing thus generated into three-dimensional data, as information on the construction site, and to compare the three-dimensional data with planning already completed. Operational efficiency as well can potentially be increased if the three-dimensional data can be outputted, in the form of drawings, for downstream expansion.
In conventional technologies, however, it was not possible to convert the state of a three-dimensional space into three-dimensional data without using three-dimensional arrangement adjustment CAD. Inevitably, the three-dimensional arrangement adjustment CAD had to be used also for simple checks, which involved thus substantial effort.
For instance, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. H04-10070 discloses a method that involves imaging the three-dimensional shape and the mounting position of a component in an actual construction state, to obtain thereby actual observed images; generating three-dimensional design information on the basis of two-dimensional design information of the component at a design stage, to obtain thereby pseudo-observed images; and contrasting the pseudo-observed images with the actual observed images, to modify the design information.
Also, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2002-7485 discloses a method that involves storing on-site measurement data of a structure being actually manufactured in an as-built 3D-CAD database; comparing the on-site measurement data with data in a design CAD database; and calculating dimensional errors, to grade thereby the manufactured structure.
These methods require using three-dimensional CAD, and involve comparison of three-dimensional image data obtained through observation and measurement at the actual construction stage with three-dimensional image data at the design stage. By their nature, these methods entail substantial workloads in terms of large volumes of data and large-scale complex processes. It has been difficult therefore to use these conventional methods as methods that allow on-site measurement results to be converted easily into three-dimensional data to be checked.
In conventional technologies, as described above, three-dimensional arrangement adjustment CAD must be used also for simply checking three-dimensional information on the arrangement of elongated components such as pipes, electric cable housing components, air conditioning ducts or the like at a construction site. This requires a check operation that takes time and effort.